Building Up From Cut Parts

Salvation is a Deep Dark Well - The Builders and The Butchers


In a year chopped full of bands plucking away at the sounds of the west and south comes Portland's The Builders and The Butchers with their sophmore release, a nod to the wild west.


The album plays jangly like a live recording which gives a powerful punch and a foot stomping notion to the whole collection. The tales are what will really draw a listener in. Steeped in the matters of everyone from Hank, Cash and Willie to Felice Brothers and Avett Brothers, this band mixes the elements of dark folk lore and the legenedary sounds of country western with modern flare.


You feel like you are listening to the soundtrack of a salvation show, full with fire and brimstone. Don't let the snake bite ya, else you'll be condemned a sinner of the soul!


It's a fun album, nothing overly triumphant, but nothing dissapointing. Give Devil Town a whirl and see if it's for you.


Rating:

The Future Comes From the Past

After Robots - BLK JKS

I can't quite figure this one out. It's ambitious as hell but for me it falls short of the intended goal.

It's been tagged as the African version of OK Computer and the band as been called upon to be the next U2 of sorts, I don't see it. The album is droning at times and awkward too often. It's loses me far more than it draws me in. I have no issues with a language barrier, but where Amadou and Mariam celebrate the modern abilities of African music, BLK JKS seem to force something new upon themselves. Instead of feeling I am listening to the warrior anthems of a new generation I find myself relating the sounds I hear more to MUSE and Mars Volta than TV on the Radio.

Maybe I'm missing it, but it'll have to come to me soon as I am growing tired of trying on this one.

Try Standby or Taxidermy.

Rating:

Pour Your Heart Out All Over Me

A Brief History of Love - The Big Pink

This album completely caught me off guard, in the best possible way.

I had never heard of The Big Pink and aside from a brief album review I had glanced at on P4K I didn't realize they were on a worthy radar; I am better for the introduction. An album that isn't afraid to be many things and be many things for the better. I cannot help but feel similarities between this album and Liars Liars, as they both sweep from fuzz heavy darkness to pop melody club tunes. This album has many facets, all of which are rewarding in their own regard, but when they are all played out in a single listen the album hits as a true success.

Their is the common theme of young love lost and the anguish that follows. But with love there are ups and downs and this album tosses and turns like a relationship on the brink of failure. Too Young To Love is a great number, full of life and hurt. Dominos is a blast of a song and the happiness is infecting and the lyrics encourage behavior of yesteryear. At War With the Sun and Frisk are perfect examples of this albums scope and impact.

All in all I dig this album and I find this interesting as it took me a long time to appreciate this genre of music and I feel like now I've found my gateway drug. Love's a bitch and then you write the songs to prove it.

Rating:

With Given Time

Broken Side of Time - Alberta Cross

The production is bigger and cleaner but the heart is still very much in tact. They may be yankees via the brits in makeup, but they are every bit southern in focus and delivery.

Many songs off the breaktrhough EP (Thief and Heartbreaker) are still present and are presented in a "cleaner around the edges" manner and the new tracks show a band on the path to bigger things. ATX shows a shraper more guitar driven approach and it plays well to make the bands sound more robust, lending nicely to a live performance. Rise From the Shadows is a steady song and one that helps strengthen the second half of the album. A good mix of songs, just wish there were more new tracks.

They have the makings of a band that could go the route of a Band of Horses and be road warriors long enough to be of the MMJ elk; but they have a lot of the ambtion of a Kings of Leon. Let's hope they follow the path of the former.

Rating:

Music on the Verge

> Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is prepped to release his first solo outing via ANTI. The album, Mo Beauty, was recorded in New Orleans and features an all-star supporting cast. One of my favorite drummers Stanton Moore (Galactic etc.) will be on skins and Robert Walter, George Porter Jr. and a who's who of New Orealns trendsetters are all a part of the party. Certainly a break from the CYHSY days, but so far I am impressed and intriqued.

ALEC OUNSWORTH This Is Not My Home (After Bruegel) and Holy, Holy, Holy Moses

> The preppy boys that are long in the tooth and quick to the hop, Vampire Weekend, are readying a new album for the first of next year. The material is more advanced than the afro-american punk pop of the self titled rookie release, but promising all the same. Download the first single from: CONTRA, it's called Horchata, after a drink presumably.

> Finally, I am scanning through the material from the latest Thom Yorke unleashing, featuring several new tracks of solo material, Radiohead tunes and the sounds/sights of recent gigs from his new group that features FLEA on bass, Nigel and the drummer for Beck/REM. Not too shabby, eh!

Modern Day Hipster Folkies Make Beatles Proud

I guess my whole dissection of the current state of Indie and the presence of the rootsy/folksy/southern styling’s in so much that is released of late started with a little jab at the Beatles. It seems only fitting that I’ll lay the topic to rest for a bit with a complete circling of the wagons.

Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk

A few months back Jim James of My Morning Jacket release an EP of George Harrison songs under the moniker Yim Yames. This in and of itself could be of little interest to a casual listener, but alas, for the likes of LTME this raised much interest as well as concern. For starters, I love Harrison and I am very much a fan of his contributions to the Beatles and rock n’ roll. I also love Jim James’ voice. This should be a perfect marriage. The EP is solid, but still uneasy. ‘Jim James’ ? Why? James seems to force odd and eccentric these days and his lyrics and direction have suffered as a result. I know this is the year the Beatles got famous again so it seems oh so fitting that James wanted to get this album out in the public. However, I knew it was just the start of what was coming.

I caught the Bright Eyes and ‘Special Guests’ set on Austin City Limits latenight back a few years ago. I have had an up and down love it or leave relationship with Conor Oberst from the onset. He was tagged as such a brilliant prodigy at such a young age that the hype of being the next ‘Dylan’ had to weigh heavy on him. But damn if the boy wasn’t depressed as all get out. It wasn’t until I heard Another Traveling Song that I bothered to really give Bright Eyes it’s just listening – thanks for the rec Pickle.

I’m Wide Awake and It’s Morning may have emo tendencies but it’s also a stunning album once you get past the politics. This marked Conor’s entry into the alt-country world, a stunning approach to that which Ryan Adams had been so desperately attempting for years. But what was most interesting about the songs Conor played under the Bright Eyes tag on ACL was the guests. The second Conor stood next to Jim James and they began to pluck away at Golden something tripped in me. It was a messing of worlds that I never thought would occur. Needless to say I had a major under appreciation for the Indie world at the time and not much of an understanding of the ‘community’ amongst the artists. I didn’t know much about M Ward aside from the name so upon finishing the show I grabbed another Bright Eyes album, this time Lifted or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground and a selection of M Ward tunes. After a while I lost focus on this collaboration and continued ahead with My Morning Jacket as well as keeping tabs on Conor.

At the beginning of the year M Ward released a powerful album in Hold Time, he re-entered my world. Not long after news began to swirl about the reuniting of these artists along with Mogis. I listened and explored, excited.

With such diverse backgrounds and seemingly opposite directions each artist was working in at the onset of ’09 the collaboration seemed. Conor is now head over heels into alt-country, M Ward has been experiencing the most success his career has known with She and Him as well as massive praise for his own release and James is still coming to terms with super-stardom and mixed praise on Evil Urges and a swelling fanbase. Mogis has been Conor’s right hand man for ages, so the foursome have a LOT to live up to.

Where would they take the music? Could James heavily influence his love of funk/reggae and bizarness? Will Conor insist on loner ballads and trite lyrics of depression and loss? Will M Ward be more of another name but not much of a true contributor with so much else on his plate? Can Mogis bring them all together?

The Verdict:

Success, but not what we expected.

Most Beatles fans mark Let It Be as more than just the final album, they see it as a metaphor for what the band had become, four separate entities trying to mesh together to sound as one. Often when artists reach a critical point in their career they find solace in the folk music/country rock world. It’s easier to not meet expectations and the music can soothe the soul of the artist. It can also be seen as a copout.

So now that I’ve played MOF several times over I can’t get past the stunning similarities between it and Let It Be. MOF almost want you to feel this, they almost want to pretend they are modern day Beatles at the twilight. Dear God, these folks have made a Beatles album!

Assuming you’ll go along with this let me engage the topic. To pigeonhole Jim James as Harrison is easy, James clearly wants to be Harrison in this mess, but he could just as easily be Paul…both find a way to drop some of the most frustratingly simplistic lyrics at the worst times amidst such great songs. That aside, we’ll keep things easy and leave James to be George. Ward is Paul, or the Walrus, however it is that you want to see him. He’s kinda the smiling face and comforting force to the band. His contributions to MOF never dazzle, but they are the most consistent and rewarding. His stays true to himself and finds great success amongst the others. Oberst is John, obvi. There is more hit and miss with Oberst, more look at how complex and important my work is compared to the rest. Oberst is as talented they come these days, but like Lennon, he’s also full of shit and pretty annoying. Mogis of course is Ringo. The backbone, the one that can take the heat, keep everyone together and keep them moving forward and focused. In a way this band can be seen as three monsters and a folkie, and for the role of folkie, Mogis earns his keep. I dare say this album would have been quite bad were it not for someone like Mogis in the room. The product we are given however works and works well at times.

But, just like Let It Be, despite its ability to ‘work’ it ultimately Lets You Down.

James takes the lead on the opening track and his touches are all over it, but thankfully he soon finds his role as one of the guys as the album rolls on. Conor has some high points and lyrically he is as good as he has ever been. Where James will sing about Magic Markers, Conor is telling the story of everyman in a tough world. Mogis’ work keeps the variety of sounds and styles together and the mixing allows for a unified feeling to the album, making so many individual tracks truly play as an album.

In my mind, Ward is the highlight of the album. His voice never wavers and his acknowledgment of the others and the way he plays off them shines of so much more comfort than the others. When James sings it sounds like a side project of MMJ, Conor sounds like his solo stuff but Ward makes you believe this MOF this is legit and that they’ve got legs to stand on in their own right.

Dear God is really the only song where the workings of James’ obsessive adobe slabs comes to play, it’s a good song, but not a powerful enough of an opener for what’s enclosed. Whole Lotta Losin’ has a looseness and life to it that hints at the band hitting their stride and giving a glimpse of the certain to be highly energetic live performance. The Right Place is the noted single and perhaps the most successful in effort for what MOF is striving towards both musically and lyrically. As has been the calling card of James and Oberst of late, remind people that if what they are doing makes them happy and if it makes them feel good, then it’s alright. I for one can’t argue with that when it comes to music. This mantra pretty much sums up my thoughts on the genre as a whole and MOF embrace it well.

Map of the World is pretty much a throwaway and I’m not harping on James, I just expect so much out of him that I find his silliness disappointing. But the real winner is The Sandman, the Brakeman and Me. This song is just perfect. Not surprising it’s Ward that carries the track and brings home the vibe the best while everyone else is still very much involved.

I believe that it is fair to toy around with the idea of these guys trying to make a Beatles album; I think they’d get a kick out of it. Shoot, more likely than not the jokes already on me.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again in summary of the album and the topic. Music is all about feeling good. It’s about reaching people with a message and a vibe. The message hear is strong and good and the vibe with honest and true.

Monsters of Folk didn’t make a landmark album, but they have formed a truly inspiring band.

http://monstersoffolk.com/

Rating:

The Voice of A Ghost

Josephine - Magnolia Electric Co.

I have been a devoted fan of Jason Molina since I first spun the Songs:Ohia side two of a split EP with My Morning Jacket. I was drawn of course by the split billing with Jacket, assuming I was to discover another band of the same elk, which at the time was rare (unlike these days). What I found did not resonate with me immediately. There was a familiarity with their music and the voice, well the voice is undeniable. Cutting, foggy, sorrowful and real.

I soon purchased Songs:Ohia and then worshiped Farewell Transmission for about a month. The way that song unfolds itself it still downright awing to me. It's nothing flashy but it draws and draws until you are smothered and smoldering.

After the stint with Songs:Ohia, Molina soon regrouped and formed Magnolia Electric Co., a name he had previously toyed with, naming an Songs:Ohia album the same. The movements and arrangements changed subtly, but there is a distinct enough before - after that the artists music can be well defined by the changing of nomenclature.

Magnolia Electric Co. are in many ways a music snob or artists band. They aren't easy to wrap around and celebrate. Like Califone, most can offer a passing listen and think little of it, but those that linger discover so much below the surface and decide to stick around for a bit. Ben Bridwell, of Band of Horses, has been a major flag waver of the MEC fanbase, often seen at the shows and promoting Molina in interviews. Bridwell claims Molina has the best voice around, bold words coming from the man that sings The Funeral.

Magnolia Electric Co. made a big hit on my Essential List of 2007 with Sojourner, a double album that explored beyond the straight forwardness of What Comes After the Blues. It's an amazing collection, but bloated and muddy to get all the way through. My review wasn't the best, I simply ran through the album twice at work and noted the songs that stood out. I then arranged these songs into a playlist and credited that as what the album should have been. Don't tell Molina.

Sadly, this practice is one I still found myself wanting to take with Josephine. But before I say anything negative allow me to start with the praise. As soon as the horns are swept in on the opening track O! Grace, a new confidence with this band is announced. It's a direction they should have been exploring more over the years and it's more than welcome. O! Grace is great but then we get more standard Molina in between songs. Let me clarify this last statement as I know it reads as a bit of a contradiction after attempting to preach for this band the last few paragraphs. MEC writes great music, they just might write too much music and on the whole you'll find more songs without strong legs than those that stand tall. I firmly believe that Molina is a victim of the same burden that artists like Spencer Krug, Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst suffer, don't release so much damn music and focus more on that which you do!

Anyways, Josephine gets back on track fast with Whip-poor Will, the best of the album in my opinion. The lyrics here are the strongest both in terms of the emotion and imagery as well as how well they fit his voice and the stylings of the band. Josephine continues it's ups and downs until the end, and when it all finishes out I am glad to say I find more tall pines than scraggly shrubs.

Molina and Co. have a unique place in music and perhaps one of the lesser know and under appreciated voices around. What they need is a friend like Bridwell to nudge them along a stronger path. Getting bigger and bolder is not always bad in this genre as we will soon see with the latest Avett release, which just might be the best I've heard all year.

Rating:

A Little Taste of What's Cookin'

Check out some of these awesome performances from some of the bands I have been discussing of late thanks to Daytrotter Sessions:
Stream the songs or download, they open in iTunes, some awesome stuff here, enjoy

The Avett Brothers (Laundry Room, A Lover Like You, More of You, Paranoia in B Major)

The Felice Brothers - this stuff gives me chills, the new Dylan? (Marlboro Man, Chicken Wire, Hey Revolver, The Devil is Real)

Bowerbirds (Chimes, Dark Horse, Beneath Your Tree, Teeth)

Dead Confederate (Get Out, The Rat, Yer Circus, The News Underneath)

Blitzen Trapper (Sleepytime in the Western World, Black River Killer, Echo)

Deer Tick - This is sick, the Nebraska cover is amazing (Dirty Dishes, Nebraska, These Old Shoes, The Dance of Love, Straight Into A Storm)

The Low Anthem (To the Ghosts Who Write History Books, Cage the Songbird, Don't Let Nobody Turn You 'Round, Ticket Taker)

Those Darlins (Red Light Love, Who's That Knocking At My Window, Hung Up On Me, A Glass To You)

Justin Townes Earle - The Replacemtns cover of Can't Hardly Wait is Great (Biscuits, Hard Livin', I Don't Care, Lone Pine Hill, You Can't Leave, Can't Hardly Wait)

Video of Monsters of Folk - The Right Place



Stream the New Alberta Cross Album - Broken Side of Time:

Well Runs Dry

Upper Air - Bowerbirds

I am going to go ahead and warn Jejune, this review is not going to be glowing.

Bowerbirds are a bit of the 'it' band in new folk. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I find myself bored when I listen to this album. All the elements are there to make this a great album, most people are raving about it, but it is bland to me.

The male singing to female companionship is not so interesting and a little overplayed these days. The songs aren't bad by any means, several are quite good and a few really good, maybe one great, but strong together and I just can't get through this album.

I enjoy Ghost Life but by the time Northern Lights hits I have grown tired and it's unknown what really transpires beyond. Here I fall victim to wanting more and not appreciating what's their. I love the challenge of learning to listen for new sounds, respect what I may not know or appreciate, but here it's not a complexity I have to wrap my head around, it's simplicity.

I know that a lot of this style of music is probably simple to listeners. Sometimes that's a good thing, I like that Iron and Wine can be bare bones and I love that The Avett Brothers can be over the top, i find this album sowhere in between, maybe a little off to the left; wherever it is, I'll leave it be. Maybe Jejune can show me the light.

Rating:

Dust of Your Caps

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin – The Low Anthem

While I am on the topic of superior second albums let’s dive into The Low Anthem’s bold leap forward. The Low Anthem is not my new favorite band and they underwhelmed me in a hostile crowd at bonnaroo this summer, but there is a profound directness and dusty happiness to their world.

OMGCD shows a major versatility for a young band, especially a band that does wear the tag of new folk…shoot they flat out rock at times and other times it simmers like a bluesy jazz number. In the middle of the whole thing is pure goodness.

Ticket Taker may be the first song to hit you when you realize the band has evolved (or revolved?, I’m kinda confusing myself of late) but by the time The Horizon is a Beltway comes galloping through, it’s almost impossible not to swagger your stride.

As has been their strongest suite to date, Low Anthem’s lyrics are worthy of written prose. They swell with life and vigor; storytelling through song as it should be. I find myself daydreaming to almost every track here, picturing myself in a more rustic world, working the earth and being a little dusty myself.

I am excited to see where this band is headed for the future. For now, they have released one of the better albums of the year.

Rating:

A Second Wind Comes

Welcome Joy – The Cave Singers

Earlier this year I was knocked over by this band’s initial release, Invitation Songs, unbeknownst to me at the time a 2008 release, it was brooding, harrowing and had a sacred spirit and darkened soul about it. Folk music of the bottle as much as the heart. About a month ago I got my hands on the newest release and I am even more engrossed than before.

There is nothing complex, overwhelming or even new to be discovered here. But just like Deer Tick, the critics focus on the lack of music evolution being displayed by the Cave Singers, but in so doing they miss the most obvious and essential aspect of the music. It sounds damn good.

The new album parallels in almost two many ways. I can swear the same riffs and arrangements appear on this album, but somehow they sound better here. They have scrapped but a bit of the doom and gloom and the religious overtones are few and far between. The range is tighter here but there is more of the good stuff. A few tracks on their original release felt fuzzy, under thought and not attention holding. I find myself engaged with every track on Joy. Beach House plays as their most ambitious song to date, but it still has a welcoming understated quality to it. I find that I Don’t Mind is the song I can’t get enough of. The album gains traction the deeper in you are willing to go.

Not to say anything is outstanding, just good music, done well.

Rating:

Tempo Changers

So where does this 'twang' or 'southern swagger' reside in Indie these days you ask, well it seems almost everywhere.

Ryan Adams, Beck, Wilco and Kings of Leon have all garnered massive success from altering variations of the country-pop-rock formula, which is often condoned by the Brooklyn type Indie snobs, but which often yields the biggest commercial success. Jack White is a huge advocate of the southern folk sound because he respects the purity of it, the blues lyrics, rock rythyms, simple time changes and the walking basslines that, once again make ya move and make ya feel good and enjoy what you are listening to.

My Morning Jacket's Jim James has managed to cover the full spectrum of music it seems (some more succesfully than others I'll add) and he's done it all southern style. But often it is not as obvious to others what that sound is.

Earlier this summer I read a review from Bonnaroo that included a quotation from Yeah Yeah Yeahs Karen O, in which she exclaimed "there are a lot of country acts here." I went to Bonnaroo, and yeah it's southern, but it hadn't hit me until I read that how much of the music I witnessed and currently listen has that country-southern-folk thing going on, music that to the likes of Karen O, probably sounds a little country and mabye a lot redneck.

Some bands of late embrace the sounds, The Avett Brothers and Band of Horses along with Conor Oberst, M. Ward, Ben Kweller, Drive-By Truckers (and variations thereof), almost exploit it, making music that stresses the twangy side and rockabilly. The music sounds amazing to me, but to a passive listener it can be too much.

Like it or not, it's gotten big.

Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper, Elvis Perkins, Bon Iver and Joh Ritter have all recieved huge critical aclaim in the past few years for their 'new approach' to music and have been tagged as bands to watch for the future. It's almost amzing to me to see how succesful Fleet Foxes has become with such a tried and true formula, how many bands do you think are green with envy that they were the Indie darlings of 2008 and all they play is folk music...that stuff has been around for over a 100 years!

I can list endless bands that fall under this scope (Black Keys, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Great Lake Swimmers, Iron and Wine, Old Crow Medicine Show, Yonder Mountain String Band, Vetiver etc.) and I know this piece is running dry so I'll wrap up the preface here and I'll move on to review albums from the bands of 2009 that are best embracing this movement.

So Pick Up the Tempo Just a Little and Drive it on Home

I don’t exactly know how it all came about, but sometime in the past 9 months I fell asleep and music revolved. I’ve been plugging ahead in my own life oblivious to this monumental happening unfolding one crucial element at a time. A few posts back I made a satire of sorts of the current state of Indie music, numbering its essential days until the likely evolution of ‘next’ occurred. Perhaps why I find myself so dumbfounded is two-fold in explanation.

First, this is exactly what I thought was going to happen; I just didn’t really believe that it would.
Second, everything that I love about music is more ‘now’ than ever.

Somewhere between Miley Cyrus, Lil’ Wayne, Rascal Flats, Radiohead, Whitney Houston, Kanye and Animal Collective lies one fundamental truth: music is derived from a multitude of various sources, created for a multitude of various consumers who will listen and interpret in a multitude of various ways all for a singular reason – music makes us feel good and people like to feel good.
I feel best when I am hit by music that is rough around the edges, with soul, grit, inspiration, voice, story, ambition and hint of southern twang…with smidgen of pop sensibility and punk nonchalance. It seems of late that I am not alone.

I’ll start big and work my way down. The most popular band in the world of date is The Bealtes. I’m not talking a ‘best ever in the world ever’ ranking of soci-economic-pop importance, I mean there are more people in 2009 buying Beatles albums than any other band. How fucking crazy is that! Just who do these Brits think they are? Don’t they know that the Black Eyed Peas have an album out right now!?!

Think about this. A band that emerged from England in the late sixties playing teen bob diddies and r and b covers who eight years later called it quits from an utter internal collapse and loss of meaning is the best band in the world 30 years later. For all intensive purposes The Beatles are a boy-band. They made some of the most rudimentary music into anthems and the most complex music seem mundane. So what’s the draw? Why are people still turning it on? Have we not masterfully evolved enough in the last 30 years to find no such use for some acid dropping, girl chasing, Elvis Disciples - Dylan wannabes? No, my friend, we have not.

Why? Because the Beatles are good. Really good. People like feeling good. People LOVE to feel really good.

In an age where auto-tune and Adobe slabs have sucked the virtuosity and life out of most music, fans are headed back to where they once belonged. Folks will never forget how good songs from The Beatles make them feel, just like we’ll never forget the way Michael Jackson makes us want to dance. What people need is a reminder that what was good yesterday is still good today. It’s been coming for years now. Ray Charles and Johnny Cash re-entered the American conscience and people began to look for sounds that were more pure, basic and with heart. In the past year America has been through a lot. Nowadays we just wanted to be reminded of what makes us happy. We don’t always need to be challenged, alienated, assimilated or bored, we just need something that hits us the right way.

To get to my point, music is going back to its roots and so far it sounds great.
More dead on for my readers, Indie hasn’t died, She’s Gone Country.

Think I am ridiculous? Here’s a list of some of the most exciting bands in Indie today: The Avett Brothers, Elvis Perkins, Heartless bastards, Felice Brothers, The Low Anthem, Bon Iver, … What do they all have in common? Admit it, they all sound like they are playing music from the 60’s and 70’s. It’s pop, sure, but more than anything it is southern in spirit and it plays like the folks songs we were raised on.

I don’t think I’m crazy, I just think every aspect of music that was so great in the 60’s and 70’s became so pasche that it was abandoned and when it tried to resurface in the late 90’s it became so commercialized that any music fan with any dignity turned away. Problem is, the essence of this music is undeniable, it’s in our blood and like the Beatles, it makes us feel good.
I told you so!

So, who’s doing it the best these days?

We’ll discuss next week…